'SUP!
I haven't visited for a few years, and bam - what a fantastic topic of discussion I just ran across.
I don't use social media.
Like I've written before, the focus on playing gotcha and trying to demean posters based on whatever the peanut gallery wanted to dissect, was just soul sucking. It really became a very negative experience. I had to ask why I bothered "sharing" if I was just going to get made fun of.
But also, I haven't been posting because 1) I finished grad school and had to get a real job, and 2) children. It's hard to explain to them that they should just sit still and watch for falling ice while mama does a few pitches in below-freezing weather. Go figure.
My current activities include thing that my 6-yo and 3-yo can participate in, like skiing and mountain biking. I hope to eventually get back to sending some 5.6s.

Trip: slovenia - misja pec, crni kal, osp
Date: 2/14/2010
Trip Report:
over the past week, my old friend (from undergrad) alexei and i drove between belgrade, serbia, and istria, slovenia.
we climbed a bit
the coast is full of huge limestone crags with hundreds of routes (about 250 at misja pec alone), with only a few below .10, and most in mid-.12 to mid-.14.
the weather began a big chilly, but we hung out, explored the adriatic coast, slept in the car for a week and dirtbagged our way around.
when we arrived in osp there was only one other group of brits, who declared the 5 degree C weather warm, and raced up their .13s. alexei and i both forgot our chalk bags, and didn't have a guide, so steve the brit kindly loaned us his! we decided to meet again in a couple of days to return the gear.
the first day we only climbed a few routes, each leading a handful of 15-20 m pitches full of smeary feet, sweaty cracks, and chossy holds. it was cold. COLD. i got to feeling quite bad for myself on our warm-up route, like "why am i having such a hard time pulling down a .9?" until we realized later that we jumped on a .10b. crazy french ratings.
the following day the weather turned even more horrid, we tried to find better conditions in trieste, italy, but it was snowing/raining sideways there, so we went back to slovenia (this place sucks you in!). we returned to osp on thursday and had a great time, met with the brits who were set on onsighting - steve did a .14c in front of us, and dan - .13d. this girl, catherine, ran up a route that alexei decided to follow. he had a hard time on the crux, but that's alright because it turned out to be a .12c. not a bad day!
oh, it was cold again. and snowing. it's a good thing that the crag is mad overhung.
oh, one of the brits was a nice man named rab. here he is, belaying alexei. guess what he used to do for a living? :)ok, http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=1685
oh shit - steve the brit? yeah - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McClure
didn't even realize it until a few days after we last saw them!
it's been good climb'n. in-between actual cragging, we kept ourselves in shape by sampling what historical monuments had to offer... in belgrade, serbia
...in rijeka, croatia
...and in piran, slovenia
saturday and sunday were AWESOME. it certainly reflected in the amount of traffic this place got. with only an hour drive from ljubljana, it's hard to stay away. i was climbing in long-sleeved tshirt, and felt quite warm when the wall got hit by the sun. in crni kal, alexei and i both lead 4 routes, up to about .10c. not too hard, but we got our fingertips torn up pretty well on this stuff. fantastic day.
hard to to show the size, but the route was almost 75 feet long, and the crack is almost 2x wider than my body
sharp, pockety limestone
alexei and i, happy after an awesome day
this stuff just eats your hands:
Gear Notes:
everything you need for bolt clipp'n. the routes are bolted generously, routes are 17-25 m long.
Approach Notes:
5 min up windy streets of osp, slovenia

Absolutely none
some of the camping at Banks lake is regulated by fish + wildlife, but most of the traffic is from boaters, not climbers. It does stay pretty busy from spring to fall. And they check for camping and parking permits way more diligently than at Vantage.
And if you count Methow valley, too. http://wdfw.wa.gov/lands/public_conduct_rules/designated_campgrounds.pdf

This is so sad. I've never met her, but it seemed like every report she wrote just screamed "I love my life!". Word "suffering" was not in her lexicon. What a human.
Gallons and gallons of IPA to you, Liz.

wow! always wanted to do that. congrats!
how did you manage to hit 45+ mph with the trailers???? i tour with my bob yak, and i would not recommend going above 25 or so because it gets rolling faster than the bike, starts shifting side-to-side and being VERY scary to ride with.

so, my kid has been walking for A WHOLE MONTH now!
time to get him on some skis.
i know we have some time before the fluffy stuff comes, but i need something to obsess about right now.
ideas? experience??

Excellent high-end boots in very good condition. They have been used for ice climbing and alpine climbing. Love the boots, but my feet got 1/2 size larger in the past year. I'm in Seattle, asking $275.
- EUR 38, US Women's 7
- Please know your size in these boots, and whether you need to size up to accommodate a sock or for protecting toes during climbing and descents
- The boot shows very little wear on the sole and no tear or scuffing on the inside.
- Some scuff marks are visible on the side from crampons (see pictures)
- No tears or damage to the rubber rands
- Boots have not been fitted or altered in any way
- They come with original insoles (in very good shape as I mostly used different insoles)
pictures of scuffs and a few minor cuts are below. Thanks for looking.

so many good points.
i was reading this tr on turns-all-year the other day, and i remember anticipating/dreading a sh*tstorm of a response. like, "wow, the poster is going to get ripped to shreds any second now". and you know, there was none of that. people who chose to comment gave their digital high-fives, said "better luck next time", and welcomed the first-timer to post again. no one demanded an in-depth self-deprecating step-by-step analysis of the trip.
every forum has its share of people who'll spew bile from behind their computer screen. anonymity=safety. and i'm sure there's a lot of ripping going on everywhere else, but that particular tr made me think that it was akin to a group of people hanging out at a bar, talking about a trip, and saying things to each other that they wouldn't be embarrassed to say to each other's faces. you know, like a club.
not this place! nah-ah! welcome to the jungle, baby. and yeah, like mark said, i don't have a thick skin either. i shrug my shoulders, but it just wears you down eventually. it doesn't have to be g-rated (boring!), but it needs to be a little more civil at times.
but onto the comments and suggestions for cc.
- admittedly, i don't really know much about blogging (don't got one) or posting pics on fb (don't got one), or posting photos from a smart phone (ditto), but i'm guessing you're already hosting your photos somewhere. is it possible to just copy and paste the rich text into the cc trip report box? meaning the photos would be hosted elsewhere, but they'd still show up here.
- in line with the previous point, i think it would be nice if people posted their whole TRs, and gave links to their blogs after that. i never end up clicking on the blog links because i look at the "trip reports" tab here for, well, trip reports. not personal blog ads.
- back when i used to post to partners' forum, i had practically zero luck with responses. i think helping people build some kind of a "background" would be very valuable. Gaucho A had asked many times about a capability to be "tagged" in trip reports. i think you'll see a spike in traffic when everyone goes back to their reports to tag previous partners (if you let us edit old TRs)
- an organized tr repository would be a huge plus. i love ivan's reports as much as everyone else, and he can continue writing his bizzarre/brilliant titles all he wants, but at least they'll be filed under "rocks" instead of "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrawks" or whatever.
***************
and thanks, guys, for doing amazing work on this site. it's really a great resource (once you learn to filter). and i think we need more pub nights. i've loved meeting people at talks like at feathered friends, and introducing ourselves partly by our cc avatars.